Pride In The Gay Community: What Does It Mean To You?

December 7, 2008

By Meghan Chavalier

Pride: A reasonable or justifiable self-respect. What does pride mean to you as a member of the gay community? To me pride in the gay community means:

P-Persistence
R-Rights
I-Intelligence
D-Determination
E-Equality

It's one thing to show up at the yearly Gay Pride parade in your city, it's another to have pride in yourself every day of your life. The gay community as a whole is a proud community, who stand together as one to fight against the prejudices that face us every day. It's essential to take that feeling of pride with every step you take in your life.

We face opposition from every corner of the Earth when it comes to equality. We are a minority on this planet, and being a minority makes the fight for rights even harder, but if you have pride in yourself and are willing to fight for your equality we can overcome the prejudices that face our community.

It's very important not to lose focus on the bigger picture in life. One person can stand against the hatred, but if we all join together in the fight for equality imagine the possibilities of the changes that could be made in this world.

In a perfect world everyone would love everyone. Nobody would fight with each other. Wars would end, and no more blood would be shed. Unfortunately, that's the not the world we live in, but it could be, if we could learn to do it.

It's easy to walk away from the world, climb back inside the box, and live there for the rest of your life, but if it's that easy why do it? When you look in the mirror what do you see? Are you proud of yourself? Do you walk through life with your head held up, eyes open? If not, why don't you? You should be proud of who you are. We weren't created to be weak, we were created to survive, and to survive you have to fight the good fight.

Gay marriage and gay adoption are issues in our community that we have taken a stand for. We fought back and said, "This isn't right, nor is it fair, and we're not going to sit back and let you push us around anymore." Did the opposition fight back? Of course they did, because that's what they do. Just as we are fighting for our rights, they are fighting us every step of the way to make sure we don't get the same rights as everyone else.

I know a woman who has been married six times. I told her today that it frustrates me to know she was able to get married six times, and people in the gay community can't marry once. She completely understood where I was coming from. She doesn't think it's fair either, and it's not.

If you love someone and are in a relationship that is healthy and beneficial to both of you, why aren't you able to proclaim your love to that person through the right of passage known as marriage? Because religious groups say it's wrong, doesn't mean it's wrong. I'm so sick and tired of people hiding behind their religion to mask their hatred for people. People fighting to stop gay people from marrying aren't saying anything more than they hate us and they will fight tooth and nail to make sure that we never have the same rights as them. Do you think they honestly care about the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman? There is a 75% divorce rate in the United States Of America. Men and women who get married actually don't like each other too much, at least 75% of them anyway. Think about that for a minute and then ask yourself, is this really about gay people marrying each other, or just blatant hatred for the gay community as a whole?

When it comes to gay adoption, there should be no laws restricting a gay person from adopting a child. I know heterosexuals with children, who should have never had children, yet they are able to adopt children without restrictions just because they're heterosexual. Why do gay people have to jump through hoops to have children? It's ridiculous, but it's also one more way hatred rears its ugly head towards our community.

Stand up, stand proud, say it out loud. Don't be ashamed of who you are. You deserve the same equality and rights as everyone else in this country, no matter what anyone may say. Can they change laws to take away your rights? Of course they can, but, can you fight back and say this isn't the way it's supposed to be? Yes you can.

Pride. Carry it with you everywhere you go and never lose it, because it's the one thing we do have as gay people that they can't take away.